The American Indian as Participant in the Civil War eBook

had stood more or less in the way of his promotion
right along just as it had decreased his military
efficiency on at least one memorable occasion and
had hindered the confirmation of his appointment as
superintendent of Indian affairs in the Arkansas and
Red River constituency. In this narrative, as
events are divulged, it will be seen that the preference
for Steele exasperated Cooper, who was not a big enough
man to put love of country before the gratification
of his own

[Footnote 692: (cont.) of Gen’l D.H.
Cooper and one under command of Col. J.W.
Speight.

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF MONTHLY INSPECTION
REPORT OF THE SECOND CREEK REGIMENT OF MOUNTED VOLUNTEERS.]

ambition, consequently friction developed between
him and his rival highly detrimental to the service
to which each owed his best thought, his best endeavor.[696]

Conditions in Indian Territory, at the time Steele
took command, were conceivably the worst that could
by any possibility be imagined. The land had
been stripped of its supplies, the troops were scarcely
worthy of the name.[697] Around Fort Smith, in Arkansas,
things were equally bad.[698] People were clamoring
for protection against marauders, some were wanting
only the opportunity to move themselves and their
effects far away out of the reach of danger, others
were demanding that the unionists be cleaned out just
as secessionists had, in some cases, been. Confusion
worse confounded prevailed. Hindman had resorted
to a system of almost wholesale furloughing to save
expense.[699] Most of the Indians had taken advantage
of it and were off duty when Steele arrived.
Many had preferred to subsist at government cost.[700]
There was so little in their own homes for them to
get. Forage was practically non-existent and Steele
soon had it impressed [701] upon him that troops in
the Indian Territory ought, as Hindman had come to
think months before,[702] to be all unmounted.

Although fully realizing that it was incumbent upon
him to hold Fort Smith as a sort of key to his entire
command, Steele knew it would be impossible to

[Footnote 696: It might as well be said, at the
outset, that Cooper was not the ranking officer of
Steele. He claimed that he was [Official Records,
vol. xxii, part ii, 1037-1038]; but the government
disallowed the contention [Ibid., 1038].]